Chapter IX...Enter Zoe

Upgrading to the C30 took a full season of repair so we kept Some Beach until we could float Whatta-Deal. We were able to move Some Beach to a young couple on Atwood Lake and it's good to see someone else starting their journey in this solid boat.

Our long term plan is to keep Whatta-Deal at Atwood Yacht Club for a summer hurricane season home. With this in mind, we continued our search for a true blue water boat. As has been our practice when we travel, we always try to find a couple different boats to check out. I had come across a sailing blog with a Baba built by Ta Shing. We were headed through Annapolis and up to New York to visit friends on our Ultra so we contacted Rich Kahn in Annapolis and were able to view 5 different versions.

This is Rich's boat. This is a Baba 35.

We, also, viewed a 38 along with three 40's. Even though we didn't go with the intention of purchasing, when Kat saw Zoe the decision was made. After 9 years of looking, our search ended. Rich was extremely helpful with the purchase and with information about the boat.

Our Zoe is a Baba Panda 40. She has the strength of build we were looking for in a boat that wouldn't break our bank and the traditional look that we prefer. The Ta Shing craftsmanship is evident throughout.

Our good fortune continued throughout the survey and the sea trials. We found very little in need of repair or upgrade. It is unusual to be able to look back at a purchase, when dealing with unfamiliar people, and say everything is as advertised and these are all good honest people.

Of course, after finding the boat of our dreams, we had to celebrate with friends.

Getting Zoe Ready To Go

Well, weather permitting, Zoe is scheduled to hit the water on March 11. I had the stuffing box repacked and the cutlass replaced by our friends at Diversified Marine Service.

These are both jobs I could have handled if I were where the boat is. Trying to accomplish boat tasks from 6 hours away is difficult at best. I am planning on doing the bottom paint but even that has become a challenge. The paint requires 50 degrees to apply and at least 50 degrees during drying time. In order to accomplish this before the 11th, I am going to have to devise a tenting system with heat. I'll let you know how that works out.

Chapter VIII...Whatta-Deal

After our friend Mike bought his C-27, I decided that we needed to upgrade to a C30 because there is no way that I should have a smaller boat than Mike. I went back to eBay to shop and came across a decent looking boat on Lake Erie for very little money. After driving up and looking it over, I decided to take a chance. Our first cardinal sin was purchasing the boat on the water. Even if it doesn't cost much, the possible repairs can be high.

In addition to needing a whole new bottom. The boat had been stored in an improperly fitting cradle and had damage to the sides as well. So my keen sense of value was a little off on this one.

Undaunted by the task at hand, we moved the boat to friend Mike's garage and enlisted the help of another friend, Chuck Smitley, who does boat repairs as Seaside Yacht Repair in Cocoa Beach Florida. As Mike would say "For just a few dollars more you can go first class". We stripped the bottom, repaired the blisters and applied 5 coats of glovit barrier seal . Chuck repaired the sides and did a first class paint job for us.

I, also, have a cousin Jake who does airplane interiors in Little Rock Arkansas. For a couple wheels of Amish Baby Swiss Cheese he offered to do the upholstery.

We managed to strip all the lights out of Mike's Building getting in and out.

Of course, since the cradle was junk, I decided to find a suitable used trailer so we could move the boat to dry storage for the winter months.

The downside is the rerigging that has to be done each year.

She wasn't the deal we thought, but, we are very pleased with the way she turned out.

The other major mistake that we made was our decision to rename the boat. She was known as Eagle IIII in her prior life but that held no meaning for us. Not understanding the importance of paying the proper respects to the water and wind gods, we simply had the lettering made and put it on the boat. Big Mistake!! Shortly after we got her to the dock, Kat was cleaning with a vacuum. We decided to break for lunch and ran out for fast food. On our return our neighbors informed us that our boat had shorted out the whole row of docks. I looked in the boat to find that the bilge was full and the water level was rising. I got the bilge pump,marked shower sump, running and discovered that the vent on the dripless seal had come apart and was running a 1/4 inch stream of water. The water had risen high enough to short the extension cord on the vacuum and had shut down the whole row of docks.

After correcting this problem, I was on deck cleaning and had pushed my I phone into my pants pocket in order to keep it safe. I stepped past the shroud and caught the edge of my phone on the cable. My phone bounced out of my pocket and spun like a square wheel on its way across the deck and into the water. Unfortunately, Otter boxes do not float and are not water proof.

At this point, after almost sinking the boat, shorting out the dock, and losing my phone, we decided to schedule the renaming ceremony. On the day of the event, I fired up the boat to turn it around so the name would be visible from shore. I dropped her in reverse and realized I had no control. By this point, I had already drifted away from the dock. I went forward to see if I had lost a shifting cable and, again found water rising at a fairly rapid rate even with the bilge pump running. The drive shaft had backed out of the coupler and seal and I had a 1 inch stream of water coming in. I sent Kat for help and proceeded to plug the hole with rags. Fortunately, there was just a light breeze and plenty of room to maneuver. I got the jib out enough to steer and was headed back to the dock when the calvary showed up in the yacht club skiff and helped me back to the dock. After diving under the boat and reinstalling the drive shaft, we offered a 75 dollar bottle of champagne to Poseidon and the gods of wind and have not had any problems since. Definitely money well spent!
Capt. Mike

Sailing friends

I mentioned that one of the things that interest me about the sailing blogs is how people get started. I have a good friend, actually more like family, also named Mike. We first met about 25 years ago when he asked if i would drive my forklift to his truck garage and load out an engine for him. I agreed and in the process dropped his recently rebuilt semi engine on the floor. We have been friends ever since.

Mike is on the Right with brother John from Jersey. Doesn't he kind of look like Jesus?

Anyway, a few years ago Mike called me. He said he had a friend coming to visit and wondered if he could borrow Some Beach. Always happy to help a friend get laid, I said no problem. One of the nice things about Mike is things always come back in better shape than when they leave. In this case, his friend fell on the tiller and broke it off so Mike built a new one.

The boat worked out so well for him that he purchased a C27 the next season. Mike's C27 is appropriately named Trouble Maker. I offered to go out with Mike on Trouble Maker and give him a sailing lesson as he hadn't ever put up his sails. We headed out and found no wind so we proceeded to drink wine. Three years later Mike still hasn't raised his sails but does consider the sailing lesson a success.

Chapter VII...Sailing Hawaii

In early 2011, Kat and I decided to visit Hawaii. Of course, we wanted to see some of the island from the water. We contacted Capt. Mike Michelweit from Honolulu Sailing Charters and chartered a Beneteau 393 Called No Hurry out of Waikiki Harbor.

We were limited in our sailing options as there was a storm north west of the island with large swells on the North Shore.

We chose to head east around Oahu and visit Kaneohe Bay. Since Kat and I are members of the Atwood Yacht Club, we were offered reciprocal privileges at the Kaneohe Yacht Club. As we headed out from Waikiki Harbor, we were greeted by humpback and pilot whales.

At one point, a humpback came up immediately beside us on our port side. Unfortunately, Kat was setting on our starboard side talking to one of our daughters on her cell. This whale was longer than we were at 40 feet and had a tail span at least 15 feet wide. This was one of the most amazing encounters of my life. The only thing that would have been more exciting would have been for Kat to have been on the port side. This whale was no more than 10 feet from the boat and blew whale snot all over us. Absolutely amazing

The sailing was slow as the wind was light and we were suffering from a dirty bottom. Fortunately, the scenery and whale watching was fantastic. When we rounded Diamond Head, we started to catch the wind that channels between the islands. This wind funnel creates a washing machine effect and made for a choppy ride.

The entrance into Kaneohe is a long shallow channel that must be traversed at high tide. We bounced a few times on the way in but made it without incident. We passed Gilligan's island but there was no sign of the castaways.

On our starboard side headed in was the distinctive landmark called the chinaman's hat.

The marine base was to port but the restricted area was large and made any sightseeing almost impossible.

The yacht club was very nice and we were welcomed like long lost friends. People would ask where we were from and how long it took us to sail from Ohio. We tied off stern to directly in front of the pool and restaurant. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

Along with the boat, we requested and received a dinghy and motor. As has been my history with dinghy motors, this one was not ideal.

Unfortunately, unlike The Moorings, we were not given a number for repairs. I was able, after cleaning the spark plug and carb, to get the engine to run somewhat.

About a 1/2 mile out in the bay, there was a sand bar exposed at low tide that seemed to be a draw for volley ball and water sports. I decided this would be a good place to try out the new pneumatic spear gun I had purchased for this trip. I had never had a opportunity to spearfish and was very excited to give it a try. Kat and I packed the dinghy and headed out across the bay. We got to the sandbar and realized we had neglected to include a dinghy anchor. The water was only about ten feet so I simply tied the dinghy to my waist and let it follow me around. I pumped up my gun to the specified number of pumps and headed off to find dinner. I spotted a school of something edible looking and dove down. I came to within about six feet and lined up my shot. When I pulled the trigger, my spear dribbled out about a foot and dropped toward the bottom. Man, talk about a let down. I am pretty sure the eruption of bubbles from the school of fish was laughter. I think I even saw one turn and give me a limp fin. I pumped the gun up farther but didn't have any more opportunities. I think I might invest in a gun with bands for my next attempt.
On the way back, the dinghy motor started cutting out. I was pretty sure we were looking at an all night row but after probably 50 restarts, we made it back to the yacht club without incident.


After a couple very nice days, we headed back south and west to Waikiki harbor.

We did the tourist thing for a couple more days and headed home.

This was a tremendous experience I would recommend highly.

Capt. Mike

Chapter VI...Starting To Research

Over the next couple years, Kat and I spent our vacations traveling to different areas and looking at many different boats. We checked out a 51 ft Morgan in Tampa, a home made Bruce Roberts 45 named Alfred(it was painted black like the bat boat) in Wisconsin, a beautiful Nelson Merrick in Detroit and many new designs at different Strictly Sail shows. We continued to sail Some Beach locally and we found a charter company out of Burnt Store Marina on Pine Island Sound with a Hunter 34 that we really like.

We returned to the BVI In 2010.

One of the highlights of that trip was a dive on the wreck of the Rhone. This was the shipwreck used in the movie The Deep.


We checked out some boats on a dive trip in Bonair

And, of course, we rented a Harley

We looked at some boats in Mexico

this one was too big.

this one had a nice picture window.

We learned that we really like boats with character, not cookie cutter designs. I love the Gozzards and the Formosas. We learned that the 40 foot range fits us well. We don't feel cramped or overwhelmed handling the boat. We decided that we didn't want to mortgage our lives for something new. We began to narrow our search to a boat line with a pedigree for durability and outstanding design.

Capt. Mike

Chapter V...The Moorings

Our experience with Windsong encouraged us to push our limits and try a bareboat charter. We decided to head to the BVI and The Moorings. We chose a 36 ft. Monohull. I added a four tank Pelican rack as one of my other obsessions is scuba diving and Kat had recently gotten certified to dive with me. We did our provisioning at the Ample Hamper on line and scheduled to fly into St Thomas where we would take the ferry to Tortola. I spent hours studying the charts and laying out our trip. We were concerned that our lack of actual big water experience would be a problem and we would be required to hire a captain so I told Kat to let me do the talking. We arrived to find that our boat had been taken out of service and we had been upgraded to a 403. The questions and briefing amounted to don't touch any of the valves, don't hit anything and if you have a problem, call this number. Well ok then!

We headed out for Norman Island and the Willie T before they figured out that they had just handed a virtually new 40 ft sailboat to a guy who had never run anything bigger than a 27 by himself. I wasn't concerned. I figured that everything worked the same, just on a bigger scale. Besides, we really only had to get it back to the dock once without hitting anything. The rest of the time we could hang on a mooring ball. How hard could it be? Poor Kat just assumed I knew what I was doing. We passed our first mooring test after a little trial and error and Kat got her T shirt from the Willie T. You didn't hear it from me but I am pretty sure she paid for it.

We got up early the next morning and picked up a mooring ball just off the end of the island so we could try a little scuba diving. The swim platform made getting on and off convenient. We did a one tank dive around the pinnacles but had some difficulty getting used to working together. It is common for new divers to want to follow but this makes for more work for the lead diver. Trying to keep track of a newbie darting around like a baitfish behind you is stressful. We have,since, become a good dive team. After a leasurely lunch and sail, we headed for Cooper island for the evening.

We got up early and headed for the baths. We wanted to be sure to be able to get a mooring ball. We were so proud of ourselves as we were the first ones there. We headed into the beach and I dropped Kat off to swim in while I took the dinghy back out to the dinghy mooring. I was having a little difficulty maneuvering in the surf but didn't think much of it until I got to shore and we realized that there was a red flag on the beach warning of dangerous conditions. Well, that would explain the lack of visitors! We had a great time exploring by ourselves and, although I had to bail out the swamped dinghy and row it back, we escaped unharmed.

We headed over to The Last Resort in Trellis Bay and followed the instructions given to restart the dinghy motor(we called the number). In a short period of time, the fine people from The Moorings showed up with another motor and switched us out. He didn't ask and I didn't offer an explanation. We spent a nice evening eating good food at The Last Resort and generally hanging out on the boat.

Our next stop was Leverick bay. But first, We stopped by the dogs for some shore diving and snorkeling. There wasn't a lot of activity down below. We saw a few coral heads with a few fish and watched a couple conch scurrying around on the sand bottom. Well, at least we could see where they had scurried. We didn't have enough bottom time to witness an actual conch scurry.

After checking out the Bitter End Resort and Leverick Bay for the evening, we decided to get up early again and sail back down to Jost Van Dyke. I told Kat that, in order to get there, we would have to go around the back side of Tortola which would mean a little more of an exposed route.
She figured out later that we could have cut through the islands. Oh well, for me, this was a highlight. We were surfing down 15 foot waves and absolutely flying. That is flying in terms of 10 knots max. we stopped at Great Harbour and set our anchor. We went to shore and ordered lunch by the dock at Foxy's. As we were waiting, I looked out at the harbor and realized the wind had changed and our boat had picked up it's anchor and was leaving without us. I made a mad dash to the dinghy and was able to get to the boat and reset the anchor before any harm was done. The harbor looked like a Chinese fire drill as we weren't the only victims of the wind and rock bottom. I retrieved Kat from the dock as she had changed our order to go and we ate lunch in the cockpit. We decided this wasn't a good place to overnight and headed up to Little Harbour.

Little Harbour is home to, in my humble opinion, the best restaurant in the BVI. Sidney's Peace and Love bar is a family run restaurant with an honor bar. You tell them how many are coming and they tell you when dinner will be served. You fix what you want at the bar and leave a note. They brought us out a lobster that completely covered the plate, then brought the other half of the lobster on another. It was awesome! We liked Sidney's so much we went for a day sail down to to the Soggy Dollar and headed back to Little Harbour for a second night.

We sailed back over to Sopher's hole for our last evening out.

While we were leaving the dinghy dock, after visiting the tourist traps, we were approached by a gentleman wearing a very very nice suit and a pair of European looking beauties. Apparently, his captain wasn't answering his cell and he needed a ride back to his boat. Turned out that he was from Turkey and he had his boat sailed over to the BVI so he could spend a week on it. At the end of the week, he flies back to Turkey and his crew which, by the way was made up of the captain, a young dark haired mate and a couple bakini clad gals, sailed the boat back. I want their job!

We were hoping for a dinner invite but all we got was a thank you.

We arrived back at the Moorings Saturday morning and landed at the dock without incident. The dinghy train guy stopped by and picked up our dinghy and the checkout amounted to "Did you break anything? "And "Did you run aground?". Fortunately, they didn't ask if we had almost lost our boat while we were eating lunch. I'd have had a hard time with that one. "And as quickly as it had begun, our adventure was over."